Increasing the genetic variation of wheat germplasm by introgressing Thinopyrum intermedium chromosomes and chromosome segments

Objective

Wheat is the predominant cereal in Europe and one of the major export products of the European Union. There is an increasing demand to preserve EU wheat-production potential and ensure long-term food security for European citizens. However, wheat is facing such major challenges as climate change, and the narrowed genetic background of cultivated wheat cannot surmount such difficulties. Wild relatives possess great genetic diversity, including tolerance to abiotic stresses, perenniality and disease resistance. The transfer of genetic diversity from wild species to wheat could give valuable responses to the effects of climate change. Breeding a new wheat variety takes 7-10 years, so in order to develop new, competitive varieties by 2020, initial crosses need to be done now.
Species belonging to the Thinopyrum genus are of particular importance as they provide perenniality, salt and drought tolerance and disease resistance. The present study aims to provide innovative tools for shaping more efficient breeding programmes in the future. A new crossing strategy will be presented, resulting in genome-wide introgressions from wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium) in only two generations. Subsequently a new Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) marker technology will be developed by exploiting recent advances in Next Generation Sequencing platforms (NGS) to provide cheap and easy to use molecular markers for Marker-assisted Selection (MAS) in breeding programmes. Introgressions will be validated by modern molecular cytogenetic techniques (genomic in situ hybridization, fluorescence in situ hybridization) and phenotyping will be carried out for disease resistance and perennial growth habit. The exploitation of these valuable tools in wheat improvement will enable the breeding of competitive varieties adapted to the changing environment at a lower cost, thus increasing the economic potential of the EU.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

• medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
• natural sciences biological sciences genetics nucleotides
• natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
• natural sciences biological sciences genetics chromosomes
• agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds cereals

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF - Marie-Curie Action: "Intra-European fellowships for career development"

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF
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Funding Scheme

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MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator